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By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
VENTNOR – Taxpayers here got some bad news last Thursday when the Board of Commissioners introduced this year’s $35.9 million budget with a 7.7-cent tax rate increase.
The 2023 tax levy will increase 8.63% to $26,089,447. The new tax rate will be $1.223 per $100 of assessed valuation, up from $1.146 last year. Homeowners will pay $1,222 per $100,000 of assessed valuation for municipal services for an annual increase of about $76. A property assessed at $750,000 will have a municipal tax liability of $9,171.87, up $576 from last year.
Mayor Lance Landgraf said it was a difficult budget to prepare due to inflation, contractual increases, an increase in the cost of health insurance, pension costs and other insurance.
“We went to all our departments and asked them to pare back where we could, but that’s a pittance compared to the increase in health care costs, which is a half-million dollars,” he said.
Auditor Leon Costello said the budget is well below the state-imposed spending and tax levy caps, and a sizeable amount of fund balance was used to bolster the budget.
“You can spend a lot more money and levy more taxes but I’m sure that is not the desire,” he said. “There are many other towns that have introduced budgets with relatively large taxes, some of which almost never have tax increases. So, it’s not uncommon and you are not alone.”
Landgraf said the city has put some public projects on hold because of the costs, such as the long-promised band shell at the beachfront park on Newport Avenue, the cost of which came in at three times the expected amount.
“There are things we have to keep doing and that’s why we need dollars in there to fund it,” Landgraf said.
Commissioner of Revenue and Finance Maria Mento said she has met with department heads to reduce the budget, “but there’s not much there to whittle down or look at.”
She said police and fire contract negotiations went to mediation and “neither side was jumping for joy,” and the 23% increase in health benefits, “makes it really tough.”
Mento said the city’s consultants have searched for alternative health insurance plans, but there were no bites.
“We’ve had some exposure in the last year or so, and we will take another look at it next year. We have an obligation in our contracts to offer equal or better, and that’s a challenge also,” she said.
“This is a hard one for us because we always try to keep things under control,” Commissioner Tim Kriebel said. “To be faced with unbudgeted and mandated increases in health care and pension is just too much to absorb even though we are using more fund balance. It’s a difficult year for us all.”
The city applied $3,810,000 in surplus to bolster the budget but maintains more than $4 million in reserves for future budgets.
The overall value of real property in the city increased 1.81% or $37.8 million to $2,133,379,900.
Overall, salaries and wages increased 7.13% or $991,753.37 for a total of $14,902,733. Direct employee costs account for 61.4% of the total budget.
Landgraf said the city would do a “deep dive” into the budget before a public hearing is held 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 11.
The board also introduced two ordinances increasing the annual service charges for water and sewer service by $50 each.
The annual rate for water service will increase to $290, up from $240; the sewer service fee will increase to $310 per year, up from $260.
The variable rates charged for using 1,000 gallons of water and sewer discharge will not change. The variable rate for water will remain at $1.15 per 1,000 gallons and the summer rate will also stay at $1.40 per 1,000 gallons. The variable rate for 1,000 of sewer discharge will remain at $4.70 per 1,000 gallons and the summer rate will remain at $5.70 per 1,000 gallons.
Landgraf said the costs to run the utility, including supplies, labor, electric and gasoline have increased, and the city is getting ready to start the state-mandated lead pipe replacement project, which will take 10 years to complete.
Public hearings on the ordinances will be held 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 27.
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